A Destiny, Torn Apart
by TermyJW
Summary: A Destiny, Torn Apart, details the life of the lone wanderer, as she takes a stroll through the life of the Capital Wasteland. Active once more, after two years of nothing! I will be rewriting and extending the first chapters in due course...
1. Chapter 0: Prelude

**DISCLAIMER**

Time for the standard rubbish... I do not own, or claim ownership of any characters, written events, or the entire universe of Fallout. It's Bethesda's job to claim these (however I do dream of it). All original rights are still intact. I do, however, claim ownership of Serena Carter, and any originally created content that I have thought up in this Fan Fiction story.

NOTICE: This entire Fan Fiction heavily relies on the Fallout 3 game, even though I am reciting most of it from memory after not having a copy of the game anymore. Either way, if you do plan to play the game and haven't done so already, do not read any part of this story. Go play, already!

This FanFiction has been rated T for content suitable for Teens, however this may change later on.

**INTRODUCTION**

This story is set exactly along the Fallout 3 universe, and the original character, Serena Carter, the Lone Wanderer, born to Catherine and James Carter. This story details Serena's life from birth to death, and details the complex choices that face her during her travels... if she has any, that is. (Phew, lucky escape from spoiler-ville...)

Of course, due to the limitations that face any writers like me who write about the quests, and stay to the original story, and what a short (boring, and dull) story that would create, there are going to be areas where I will be expanding, using my own creative flair.  
(In fact, I'll probably do that everywhere...)

**A Destiny, Torn Apart**

* * *

"...Dr. Madison and I are going to recalibrate the recording..." A giggle. "...James, please!" Catherine exclaims, half-heartedly. "As soon as we get the results we need, we can move on to..."  
James leans over, and presses a switch on the recorder, and twists around to face Catherine.  
"You can finish that later, right?"

-Based on a recording found at the Jefferson Memorial.

**Prelude, The Birth**

9 months later, and our events begin.

"Catherine! It's a girl! A beautiful, baby girl!" James swooned, looking briefly at his wife, not wanting to miss a moment of the birth, yet ignoring the new arrival for just a few moments.

"Oh, ha." Catherine replied, breathlessly. "She looks so much like you!"

James smiled more, and kissed Catherine as nurses complete the normal checks on the baby. Turning back to the young arrival, his face lit up with pride. "Hello there, sweetheart. Your going to need a name... your mum and I have been thinking... What about Serena? Serena Jayne Carter."

"Serena Jayne Carter. Sounds pretty." Dr Li added from the side, pulling the Gene Projection screen down from it's resting place. It was rusted, and looked like it had past the point of no-repair a long time ago. "Gene projection is ready. Are you sure you want to see it? Last chance to change your minds.."

"We'll see it, thanks Li." James said with a courteous nod, as Dr Li switches on the screen. Both James and Catherine had been waiting a long time for this moment, and waited eagerly there. The screen took a moment to flash on, and even when light is emanating from the screen, it showed blackness for a while. A few flickers, and then a figure. It showed a stunning, tall woman, with shoulder-length dirty blond straight hair. Her face has a smile that no man could ever ignore. Serena gurgled in her cot, eyes closed, oblivious to the world at the moment.

"Look at that... Catherine? Catherine, what's wrong?" James had walked towards the machine, however now he darted over to Catherine, still lying, but extremely still, on the metal bed. "She's gone into cardiac arrest! Get the baby out of here!"  
Dr Li and several nurses rush to help James, while two nurses wheel Serena out of the chamber. The corridor lights flush her vision to white...

**Prelude, Final Education**

16 Years later.

"No, darling, you are not ill, and yes you have to take the G.O.A.T test. Everyone else does. Even I did it back when I was your age." James said, as he finished Serena's medical evaluation. "Look, everyone is nervous, this test determines their future in the Vault. I remember back in the day when... ah, look. Here is Jonas. Looks like I'm going to have to wrap this short."

"Hey hey, sport! Today's the big day, eh? Don't want to be late, do you?" Jonas asks, slightly looking edgy. "Future changes, and all that."

"No... I don't. Bye." Serena walks slowly out the door, and watched it close behind her. There were very few times where her dad closed the door so shortly after her leaving, most of them when Jonas was there, or when he had "important work" to do. Sure, she'd been suspicious, and she had hung back from classes before. The last time, though, she'd been caught, and today was important. Today would determine how her future would manifest.

Well, it would, if aa group of her classmates surrounding someone nearby weren't in her way.

"Amata, we'd be so good together, and you just know it." said Butch, the leader of the gang, and closest to Amata in the centre. Serena would normally make a grave effort to avoid the group, had they been bullying someone other than Amata. But they were close friends, and she felt she had an... obligation to help.

"Butch, you wouldn't make a good match with the teddy bear in your quarters, even if you tried hard enough." Serena shouted over the heads of the crowd, smirking slightly. How that would help, she hadn't a clue, it was a gut reaction.

Butch turned towards her, the crowd now dispersing towards the classroom, for reasons unknown... "What's going on here? Serena, are you starting trouble again? As usual." Mr. Brotch's voice echoed in the corridor. "Get inside, the lot of you. Important day today."  
Everyone files into the classroom, and sits, preparing for the test yet to come... their future. A lot of them were about to find their place in life.

2 hours later...

"Not one, but two Shift Supervisors, well well. Congratulations, Serena! Looks like I could be seeing two possible overseers. You'll join Amata in the Overseer's work quarters next week, ready to start work. Until then, you have the rest of the week off. Enjoy!"

Serena had been the last person to submit her test. She walked off outside, only to be met by Amata.  
"Come on, you. Always last for everything. Let's go use our new privileges and push in front of Butch and his gang in the cafeteria."

Serena had no idea the next 3 years were going to be inspirational for her... and also the time after that even more so.


	2. Chapter 1: The Start of The End

Before reading this chapter, please ensure that you have read my disclaimer on the first page... you should also read the Prelude, too...

**Chapter 1: The start of the end... or rather, the discussion**

"I'm not going to ask you again... give me that key," booms an unknown voice, while an echoing, female voice quietly whispers, "Serena, wake up... please, wake up..."

"No, I'm sorry, but this key belongs with me. My father gave it to me, and he got it from his father. See a pattern forming there? You aren't getting it, or the secrets it unlocks!" Serena shouts into the thin air, not a clue who she is actually communicating with. Her voice quivered as she shouted the last few words.

Amata is standing beside Serena, now clearly irritated. She pulls Serena, making her face visible, and slaps it.

"OW! ...What's going on?" Serena wakes up nearly immediately. Who wouldn't, being slapped like that? "Did you... did you just slap me?"

"Well, I would have had a chance to explain, but a certain idiot wouldn't wake up. Look, you need to..."

Serena began to stand up, but stopped, interrupting Amata mid-sentence by holding her hand up, finger pointed directly upwards and waggling slightly. "Woah, woah, woah. I know that voice. You have some kind of plan, and you are about to involve me in it. Like that cafeteria plot you made up three years ago, getting _ME_ in trouble while _YOU_ escaped. I'm not having it this time."

Amata's face grew bright red, her voice quiet. "That was not my idea, as I have repeatedly told you, over and over again."

"Oh, really? Then who's was it?"

"Whether you like it or not, I did not come here for an argument!" Althought I'd like one, Amata thought to herself. "I came here because _you are in danger!_" Amata's voice was louder now, and she was poking Serena's chest. Amata was wearing her Vault 101 Overalls, and not the Vault-issued PJs, even though the wall clock announced the time for all who cared as 3am. That rung a few bells in Serena's head, but she shook it off quickly.

"Amata, go to sleep. Like I was a moment ago. Whatever scary story you have just thought up, or whatever plans or actions you have, they can wait till morning."

Serena moved to get back into her bed, her Vault 101 PJs rustling as she moved, but Amata takes her hand. "Serena, stop. I am being _serious_. Your father opened the door. He's gone... He's... I'm sorry."

This evoked a reaction. "My father? Opened the vault door? You gotta be kidding me now..." She knew from Amata's eyes that she was not kidding, not at all. "You're telling the truth. I can see it in your eyes."

Amata pulled Serena to her feet. "You need to get your overalls on, ditch those ridiculous pyjamas, and _get out of here! NOW! _My father's security forces are already looking for you."

Serena chucked, always seeing the amusing side to things. "Nice to see that the security forces have to _look_ for me, during the night. Where else would I be other than my room, hiding in Mechanics?" she replied, sarcastically.

"Enough of the sarcasm. These sirens have been on for about half an hour, actually, and most of the other residents have been awake all this time. They are all asking the same thing: What's going on. Dad says it's a radroach infestation, but that's just a cover-up."

Serena had been changing all along, and now wore her standard Vault 101 Supervisor overalls. "Okay, so what do we do?"

"Correction: What do you do, I can't be involved." This elicited a roll of the eyes from Serena, which Amata promptly ignored. "You are going to my dad's office, and you're breaking in. I know you've already been in there many times, but if you use dad's password on his computer, there should be a hidden tunnel underneath the desk. You know the office and his computer inside-out, did you notice anything?"

Serena shook her head, smirking. "No. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I've only done a brief scout-around. I think he has hidden something on there, that's probably the access switch. Shouldn't be too hard to crack, if I try my best"

"Okay. Last problem. The security. I stole my dad's 10mm pistol. You "

"No. You'll keep that. Just in case. I have my own... tactics"

Serena took a baseball bat from her cupboard, leaving a BB rifle there. She felt she didn't really need that, she wasn't going to be seen anyway. She strolls over to her bedside table, and picks up a picture.

"To mark the occasion..." She smashes the frame against the bedside table. "There. My most prized possession, destroyed." Serena reaches into the frame, carefully, and takes out the photo. "I'm keeping the photo, of course. It's my dad, after all."


	3. Chapter 2: A Good Time to Leave

Before reading this chapter, please ensure that you have read my disclaimer on the first page. You should read the work I've already written for the story too, if you have not done so already...

My apologies for any change in writing style (Yes, even I can see it's quite evident, I have changed to a first-person format) that may have occurred; I am older, wiser, more grown-up. A better writer, I'd hope. And on that note, here we go.

**Chapter 2: Would now be perhaps a very good time to leave?**

"_That event, that one point in time, everything went from comfortable to pretty much downright atrocious. Not only for me, but also for everyone living in that vault. And it was his entire fault."_

Journal extract, Serena Jayne Carter, date unknown.

I was hidden. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, we all know that is wrong, but I remember thinking it was better to avoid confrontation at the time. I had just left my little room, the one that I was given when I was sixteen, time to stop living with my dad and embrace my adulthood, and my career as a Vault Supervisor.

However, that is the past. At this very moment in time? I am in a dusty, old vent. Outside my room. I'd crawled inside it so many times before, I was a right old little scout in my youth, and it definitely paid off to know about the short-cuts, or the hiding spots, even if you _don't_ plan on getting into trouble. Which as a low-tier Management assistant, I had not planned on… However, I am blathering again, aren't I? Avoiding the moment, and the action going on around me. Staying in the present, very much important right now. Must focus.

Outside of my temporary location inside the vent, there are security guards. The vaults elite crack team of the strongest, most idiotic men from what I had seen. They knew how to use the weapons they had, and they knew how to use the weapons they didn't have. The ones they did have being more important, of course. Luckily, they weren't looking for me. They were… concentrating on the radroaches. Big, giant… cockroaches. These ones don't refuse to die when you kill them though, so that is one relief. And they were effectively using the weapons they had. Needless to say, the roaches didn't move around and attack for too long. They did manage to take down one of the guards, mainly from the initial ambush, I had watched it all.

The remaining guards ignored their fallen comrade, rather heartlessly. This confused me, but I didn't take it to heart. Their orders were to look for me, and take me to the Overseer, whether I consented or not. Meaning, I was either walking into that office or I was being carried in, struggling or unconscious. My plan was to enter that office alone. My brain was racing, what if he was in his office? Would I have to knock out, or worse, kill Amata's father? No, she'd never forgive me if I killed him. Maimed, I _think_ I could escape without too much damage, but I couldn't kill him. Or anyone else, for that matter.

It was at this moment that they moved, towards my room. My personal space, and they wandered straight in. This annoyed me to no end, but I wasn't going to risk Amata's entire escape plan just because some bozo's went into my room. No, I was going to disappear. Quite quickly, too. I turned, and slowly crawled along the vent. I knew where I was going, I just didn't know what would happen after I arrived.


End file.
